Black Orchid Girls (Detective Amanda Steele)

TWENTY-ONE

Just an isolated incident, Amanda repeated in her head, trying to convince herself. Skilled at handling a blade. No hesitation marks. Organized. But there had only been one victim. She’d latch on to that. Sure, there was the case of Annie Frasier from twenty years ago, but what were the chances it had any connection to Chloe Somner’s murder? Probably small.

Malone surely wouldn’t support her pursuing a serial killer who may not even exist. He’d tell her to treat it as an isolated incident and continue to look at the people in Chloe’s world. In fairness, she and Trent hadn’t even tapped into Chloe’s haters on Snap VidPic, and they could still explore Luke Hogan more.

Regardless of how they viewed the murder, it would have taken meticulous planning. How long had the person been scheming Chloe’s death? Was the black orchid picked with intention? Had the killer been stalking Chloe to know her routine? Even if that was the case, it didn’t answer how they’d know she’d be at the park so early Monday morning.

So many questions that frustrating doesn’t begin to cover it!

Trent pulled into the lot of Lee’s Flowers, located in Woodbridge, a short distance from where the Hogans lived.

“Luke was certainly close enough to a flower shop,” she said, getting out of the car with Trent.

A bell chimed when they opened the door, and a smiling woman behind the counter welcomed them and introduced herself as Lee, the owner.

The fragrance of all the flowers bombarded Amanda’s senses and propelled her back to the funeral home where the service had been held for Lindsey and Kevin. How much time had to pass for that to stop happening? Would it ever? She’d just like to be a normal woman who could enjoy a bouquet for the sheer pleasure of its colors and smells rather than any attribution of meaning. Meaning… They’d been focused on what the black orchid represented, but flowers in general stood for good and bad. They were present for death, but they also marked happy occasions and celebrations—graduations, the birth of a child, marriage, anniversaries. The mile markers of life.

Amanda looked around the store, passing refrigerated units and displays of flowers in pails with water. No black orchids.

“Can I help you with anything?” the woman asked.

They gave the formal introductions, and Amanda asked, “Do you sell black orchids?”

“Ah, no, sorry.” Lee winced. “Though we do have some white and pink ones.” She came out from behind the counter and led them to a table with a few potted orchids climbing up a slender bamboo stem.

“They’re beautiful, but we’re interested in black ones. Can you order them in?”

“Yes, of course.”

The black orchid that had been left on Chloe’s body appeared to have been rather fresh, but also like it came from a mature plant. “And do the orchids arrive fully matured?”

“They do.”

“Just out of curiosity, how long does it take the black orchid to get to that point?”

“Full maturity would take, say, eight to ten months.”

Amanda nodded. “Is there any way for you to see if anyone has ordered this plant from you—recently or ever?”

Lee smiled. “I can check the book.” She returned to the counter, and the bell over the door rang as a woman entered. She smiled and waved at Lee, who said, “I’ll be with you shortly, Carol.”

“No problem.” Carol extended her smile to Amanda and Trent, but her eyes narrowed slightly, human curiosity at work. She shuffled around the store, putting her nose to most flowers as she went along.

Lee pulled a large book out from behind the counter and thumbed through its pages. After a minute or so, she shook her head. “I didn’t think so—no one has ordered any black orchids from me in some time.”

“But someone has before?” Trent asked.

Lee pressed a manicured fingernail to the page. “Uh-huh. Three years ago. Does that help?”

Amanda leaned over the counter and caught a glimpse of the name on the page. Leah Turnbull. “Probably not, but thank you for your help.”

“Which I’m afraid I didn’t really provide.” Lee closed the book, and it gave a soft thud as she did so.

Amanda and Trent left the store and went on to mark off the other florists in Prince William County. None got them any closer to the killer they were after.

It was going on four PM by the time they’d finished.

“If we spread out even further, we’d need to consider floral shops in and around Fairfax as well, but this avenue could be never-ending.” She was so frustrated with all the dead ends in the case thus far. “There’s also the possibility the orchid was ordered online, and without a suspect, there’s no place to even begin with that.”

“Yeah, and it’s possible the killer had their own greenhouse they pulled from.”

She massaged her temples. “Sometimes it feels like we’re bashing our heads against a wall.”

“You can say that again.”

She looked over at her partner. Normally he was the positive one; this case must have been getting to him too. “I just want to close this case. Chloe deserves that much, and so do her family and friends.”

“We will. It just might take more time.” He paused, his blue eyes taking on a deep intensity. “We need to go easier on ourselves. It’s only day two of the investigation.”

Two days since a young woman was killed. Two days behind her killer. Two days closer to another victim? She closed her eyes.

“Hey, we’ll get this bastard.”

She leaned back into the neck rest and rolled her head to face him. “You know what?”

“What?”

“You’re right.”

“I tend to be sometimes.” He smiled.

“Let’s hit Chloe’s townhouse. I think we might also need to make the haters on Chloe’s Snap VidPic account more of a priority, ferret out their real identities.”

“Good idea.”

“I just don’t want to give in to thinking it’s a serial killer. Not yet.” That was despite the circumstances surrounding Chloe’s murder being unique and rather troublesome—namely the cleansing and posing of her body with the black orchid. Both things could send a chill through her with little thought.

“But I’ll still follow up with that Metro PD detective?”

She nodded. “To be thorough.”

Trent took them to the girls’ townhouse, and Amanda called home on the drive.

Libby Dewinter, “Aunt Libby,” was with Zoe today. Libby had adopted the Parkers as her own family, and the more Amanda got to know Libby, the more Libby was becoming family to her too. There was a part of Amanda that warned her to pull back and protect her heart in case Zoe’s adoption fell through. But despite life teaching her that the ground could fall out at any time, she was choosing to put her faith in a happy outcome when it came to Zoe.

Libby answered.